Blumenthal targets Kavanaugh at school event

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is interviewed for Warde TV before taking part in the Constitution Day Town Hall at Fairfield Ludlowe High School Monday. Fairfield,CT. 9/17/18

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is interviewed for Warde TV before taking part in the Constitution Day Town Hall at Fairfield Ludlowe High School Monday. Fairfield,CT. 9/17/18

Photo: Genevieve Reilly / Hearst Connecticut Media

Photo: Genevieve Reilly / Hearst Connecticut Media

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U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is interviewed for Warde TV before taking part in the Constitution Day Town Hall at Fairfield Ludlowe High School Monday. Fairfield,CT. 9/17/18

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal is interviewed for Warde TV before taking part in the Constitution Day Town Hall at Fairfield Ludlowe High School Monday. Fairfield,CT. 9/17/18

Photo: Genevieve Reilly / Hearst Connecticut Media

Blumenthal targets Kavanaugh at school event

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FAIRFIELD —Sen. Richard Blumenthal had a reminder for students at the Constitution Day Town Hall at Fairfield Ludlowe High School: The U.S. Constitution, he said, is a living document.

“They (the founders) left open a lot of questions for us to answer,” Blumenthal, a Democrat in his second term, said..

The town hall has become one of the ways the AP Government class at Fairfield Ludlowe marks Constitution Day. Joining them on Monday were students from Fairfield Warde and Weston high schools.

Students, some of them decked out in red, white and blue attire, wanted to know how do they not become cynical about politicians and the political process.

“You’re the guys that are going to take over,” Blumenthal said. “The way to changes things in this country is through the ballot box.”

All it takes, Blumenthal said is one really good leader to make a difference. He noted that the compromise in forming the government and writing the Constitution that led to both a Senate and a House of Representatives came from Connecticut’s two delegates.

“They were at each others’ throats,” Blumenthal said, but the Connecticut Compromise saved the day.

“Getting involved for an individual you believe in, causes you believe in,” he said are ways to fight that cynicism. “I wake up a little cynical every day,” Blumenthal said. “I have to go Washington today and deal with that morass. It’s still a swamp.”

In response to another question about the growing student debt, Blumenthal said that is one of the greatest scandals of our time and suggests that student loans be forgiven for those graduates who become firefighters, or police officers or teachers.

“A reverse GI Bill,” Blumenthal said. He also said the government should not be making a profit off of student loans. “I have been pounding my head against this problem for the eight years I’ve been in the Senate.”

Blumenthal also told the students he does not support Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, noting that he would be the vote to outlaw abortion and end a woman’s right to choose, and against same-sex marriage.

“I have fought, and believed, for the last 40 years that the government has no right to be in your doctor’s examining room,” he said. “The government ought to stay out of your personal, private decisions.”

As for the recent allegations that have come out regarding Kavanaugh and an incident sexual misconduct in high school, Blumenthal said there is no question that the vote on his nomination should be delayed.